Chelsea Clinton Gave Website Advice To Hillary

The conservative website Judicial Watch has released another batch of emails from Hillary Clinton's time in the State Department, which include a whole lot of nothing aside from some relatively boring communications between Clinton aide Huma Abedin and several donors to the Clinton Foundation. There is, however, a more exciting and delightful email from Chelsea Clinton to Hillary with tips on how to make her website better. Among other things, Chelsea thought that it could stand to be a bit "snazzier."

In a message from June 2009, Chelsea — writing under her pseudonym Diane Reynolds — told her mom that, although the State Department website was commendable in some ways, it needed a bit of work. Among other things, Chelsea took issue with the website's search functionality, overall usability and presentation of the agency's press releases.

"i like that a country is highlighted each day," the former First Daughter wrote, "but it could be snazzier and its coloring should mirror that of the white house site."

Chelsea also said that the pictures of her mom on the website should have been selected with more care, as some of them were "weird." More specifically, she wrote:

"seriously you need someone else editing the pictures they put of you on the homepage scroll - some are fantastic and some are weird!"

Chelsea's input on the State Department website is rather in-depth and thoughtful. She is correct, for example, that the section on press releases should be organized by year, and that the most recent release should be shown first. Her comment that the color scheme should match that of the White House website is smart as well; disparate government websites tend to have no design coordination whatsoever, which tends to make them look unprofessional and slapdash. And of course, if you're going to put pictures of yourself on a website, you always want to make sure you choose the best ones.

While amusing, this email isn't terribly relevant to the presidential race, Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, or Clinton's ability to serve effectively as president. But that's sort of the point: Of the many, many emails that have been released from Clinton's time in the State Department, many have included nothing more than simple, everyday communications. The fact that we're even talking about the advice Chelsea gave to Clinton on how to make a more user-friendly website is a good illustration of this.